No one is losing money. High end audio is typically priced at 6 times manufacturing cost. This is how nice ole homey Paul of PS audio can afford to give MSRP in trade for your old stuff: Assuming he sells at the standard of 600% of cost to make, a $6,000 piece has $5,000 to play with, because he has no middleman or retailers.
Transistors, caps, etc are cheap. once there is a design, its mostly profit.
Dealers pay 50% of retail. The distributor pays the other 50% to the factory. Dealers typically pay freight, but on a good sized order, the sales rep will deliver to make the sale.
We all get great deals here and there, I hope, but as I said, no on is losing money, unless the company has other serious problems, such as getting stuff built by the lowest bidder, i.e. early American relatively higher end audio, such as Phase Linear, GAS (Ampzilla), and Hafler.
Transistors, caps, etc are cheap. once there is a design, its mostly profit.
Dealers pay 50% of retail. The distributor pays the other 50% to the factory. Dealers typically pay freight, but on a good sized order, the sales rep will deliver to make the sale.
We all get great deals here and there, I hope, but as I said, no on is losing money, unless the company has other serious problems, such as getting stuff built by the lowest bidder, i.e. early American relatively higher end audio, such as Phase Linear, GAS (Ampzilla), and Hafler.